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Autonomy is to hoover up rival search and process management vendor Verity Inc for $500m, the two firms announced early today.

The deal will see Autonomy's CEO and joint founder Mike Lynch become CEO of the combined company, with Verity CEO Anthony Bettencourt becoming CEO of the US operation. Lynch said the deal will “extend the adoption of our Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL) as the standard for handling all forms of unstructured information.” The combined company will have around 16,000 customers.

UK-based Autonomy will pay $13.50 for each Verity share, funding the offer with a rights issue, a term loan and existing cash.

The acquisition has prompted the "welcome" of enterprise search rival Fast Search & Transfer, whose boss, John Lervik says: "This comes as no surprise - we have been evaluating Verity and its offerings ourselves and have found the price to be far too high. Verity has had little to no growth over the past years, and we see little, if any, synergy between their offerings and Autonomy's."

Earlier this year, Mike Lynch trashed the UK's immigration policy. Presumably he decided that rather than importing bright things from outside the UK, and decided it was simply easier to buy a few thousand Americans instead.®